Vivo and the BCCI suspended a Rs 440 crore per year deal for this season owing to the border stand-off between India and China.
Mumbai Indians players celebrate after winning the 2019 IPL edition. Pic/ AFP
Fantasy gaming platform Dream11 on Tuesday won the IPL title sponsorship rights with a bid of R222 crore, replacing Chinese mobile phone company Vivo for a four and a half month deal. Dream11 has been one of the IPL sponsors for a couple of years now. "Dream11 has won the rights with a bid of R222 crore," IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said. It is learnt that multinational conglomerate Tata Group didn't place a final bid while two education technology companies—BYJUs (R201 crore) and Unacademy (R170 crore)—came second and third respectively.
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Vivo and the BCCI suspended a R440 crore per year deal for this season owing to the border stand-off between India and China. The IPL starts on September 19 in the UAE. There are certain questions about Chinese company Tencent's investment in Dream11 but one of the BCCI insiders privy to the development said that it is less than 10 per cent. Dream11 is an Indian company founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth. "Dream11 stakeholders, including its founders plus all 400 plus employees, are Indian," a BCCI source said.
"Their Indian investors are Kalaari Capital and Multiples Equity. Even Dream11's product is available exclusively for use only by Indians. Only a single-digit percentage minority stake is held by Tencent," the official added. However, as recently as last month, the BCCI's Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) had sought an inquiry against the company after it was reported that the platform had links to a fake T20 league which was held in a Punjab town but was live-streamed as a game in Sri Lanka. The ACU investigations showed that kits used by players in the tournament had the Dream11 logo and the event was live streamed on FanCode. Both Dream11 and FanCode are part of Dream Sports group.
While the BCCI managed a title sponsor at a short time but the money coming in is less than what it was getting from Vivo.
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